RMS Mauretania (1906)

Mauretania on her sea trials, passing Castle Weymss and the Station Clock Tower on the Measured Mile, Skelmorlie, November 1907
History
Name:	RMS Mauretania
Owner:	1906–1934: Cunard Line 1934–1935: Cunard White Star Line
Operator:	Cunard Line
Port of registry:	Liverpool
Route:	Southampton–Cobh–New York City
Ordered:	1904
Builder:	Swan Hunter, Northumberland, United Kingdom
Yard number:	735
Laid down:	18 August 1904
Launched:	20 September 1906
Christened:	20 September 1906, by the Duchess of Roxburghe
Completed:	7 November 1907
Acquired:	11 November 1907
Maiden voyage:	16 November 1907
In service:	16 November 1907
Out of service:	1934
Fate:	Retired from service September 1934.
Status:	scrapped in 1935 at Rosyth, Scotland.
General characteristics
Tonnage:	31,938 GRT
Length:	790 ft (240.8 m)
Beam:	88 ft (26.8 m)
Draft:	33 ft (10.1 m)
Depth:	33.5 ft (10.2 m)
Decks:	8
Installed power:	Direct-action Parsons steam turbines (two high pressure, two low pressure) 68,000 shp (51,000 kW) nominal at launch, 76,000 shp (57,000 kW) on record run, later increased in 1928 to 90,000 shp (67,000 kW) July 1929.
Propulsion:	Triple bladed design at launch changed soon after to four bladed versions. Astern turbines available on inboard shafts only.
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) (design service speed)
Capacity:	2,165 passengers total: 563 first class 464 second class 1,138 third class
Crew:	802
Notes:	Running mate to RMS Lusitania

1906–1934: Cunard Line

RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson for the British Cunard Line, and launched on the afternoon of 20 September 1906. She was the world's largest ship until the completion of RMS Olympic in 1911 as well as the fastest until Bremen's maiden voyage in 1929. Mauretania became a favourite among her passengers. After capturing the Eastbound Blue Riband on her maiden return voyage in December 1907, she claimed the Westbound Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing during her 1909 season. Mauretania would hold both speed records for twenty years.

The ship's name was taken from Mauretania, an ancient Roman province on the northwest African coast, not the modern Mauritania which is now to the south. Similar nomenclature was also employed by Mauretania's running mate, Lusitania, which was named after the Roman province directly north of Mauretania, across the Strait of Gibraltar, the region that now is Portugal. Mauretania remained in service until 1934 when Cunard White Star retired the ship and then scrapping commenced in 1935.

In 1897 the German liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the largest and fastest ship in the world. With a speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph), she captured the Blue Riband from Cunard Line's Campania and Lucania. Germany came to dominate the Atlantic, and by 1906 they had five four-funnel superliners in service, four of them owned by North German Lloyd and part of the so-called "Kaiser class".